Medway RFC Cougars

Sunday 16 January 2011

Medway 28 - Thurrock 19

Tries: French (2), Rawlins

Con: Stone (2)

Pen: Gowdy, Stone (2)

Cougars Squad:

As Sidcup were unable to make the rearranged league fixture, a friendly was arranged with old rivals and friends Thurrock who we thank for travelling down to Kent to provide both teams with much needed match play. This was a tough, rough game, hard fought by both sides and that could have gone either way but it was the Cougars who came away with the victory.

Ben Lazell led Medway out on a bright but very windy morning to Priestfields top pitch with its notorious slope, exposure to the winds whipping up from the river and extra special Council Fertiliser. Thurrock kicked off into the wind but down-hill and the Cougars returned with some good phases but Thurrock, we could see, were going to be up quick and strong in the tackle. Possession swapped a couple of times as the teams settled until a good Thurrock kick took the ball down into the dip. However, nothing came of the move and Medway drove back to half way. They lost the ball though and had to defend well as Thurrock pushed forward. Thurrock's reward was a penalty which was taken for the first score of the day. Medway challenged from the kick off and were awarded their own penalty about 35 metres out which Charlie Wardzynski came very close to converting. Another difficult penalty was awarded shortly afterwards and Wardzynski was just wide again. Two excellant efforts which without the cross winds probably would have made it. The Cougars attacks were all too frequently thwarted with ball carriers finding themselves isolated in the tackles allowing Thurrock to steal. That aside Medway continued to push winning a penalty some 45 metres out which Dan Stone this time narrowly missed. Thurrock however conceded another penalty from the 22 metre drop and Stone converted the easier kick to pull the scores level. There was a period of give and take which ended when Sam Cornell spoiled a ball going down the Thurrock backs and what followed was some great work from Luke Gowdy and Tom Brown leading to another penalty which was kicked over by Stone. The next Medway move saw Dominic French spot a gap as the Thurrock backs pushed up too quickly. He nearly broke through but when he was stopped play was pulled back for the offside penalty which Gowdy converted to give a half time score of 9-3.

Thurrock returned well from the restart and fed the ball out to their wing who broke for the line but good awareness and a fine cross field sprint saw Cornell make a brilliant saving tackle a few metres short allowing Medway to regroup and prevent the try. However, they were penalised at the ensuing ruck and Thurrock pulled the score back to 9-6 with a well struck penalty kick. Both teams were going to have to adjust their games as the referee was very hot on players having hands in or being off their feet at the ruck. Thankfully, the ref hadn't noticed anyone still off their face from yet another David McManus/Ben Wellard Saturday night bash. Max Fenton returned to the pitch after being patched up from a nasty cut over the eye sustained in the first half and made his presence felt with a couple of powerful drives which moved the Cougars toward the Thurrock line. French joined in taking up the charge and fought well through the Thurrock forwards for the first try of the game. No extras so 14-6. Thurrock then put a great box kick in from the back of a scrum on half way to push them to within 10 metres of the Medway line. In the following phases yet another penalty allowed Thurrock to pull the score back to 14-9. Shortly afterwards the Cougars were pushing forward but as the ball went down the backs there was an excellent interception by the Thurrock full back which led to a converted try under the posts giving them back the lead at 14-16. End to end stuff now and another couple of Fenton drives took Medway to the Thurrock 22 metre line. Penalties were conceded by Thurrock which Medway carried rather than kicked and eventually French took the ball over for his second try of the match. Stone converted from wide with a brilliant kick against the wind and Medway were back in the lead again. Thurrock replied quickly and their next break gave them an easy penalty bringing the lead down to only 2 points. Like all our previous encounters with Thurrock this really was a nail biting tight game and the pressure was on both sides to see who would come out on top and have the bragging rights. Cornell saw yellow for a deliberate block as Thurrock attacked through the backs but Medway regrouped and pushed forward attacking the Thurrock line with gusto. Thurrock now lost a man to the sin bin for totting up off the feet offences in the red zone and Medway continued to pile on the pressure around the Thurrock 5 metre line. They defended well and it looked like a stalemate but then in the last move of the game Tom Rawlins stretched out to just reach the try line. Stone converted and the game finished 28-19 to the Cougars.

A tough and well fought game with Dominic French, Tom Brown and Max Fenton doing a lot of the damage. Dan Stone's 10 points with the boot pushed the score along but the man of the match award this week goes to captain Ben Lazell for leading by example with a lot of hard work, control and determination. A natural leader. Well done Ben.

Paul's Pictures